H1B Visa 2019 – Lottery Predictions ? Fee, Quota, News & FAQs

Many of you who were not lucky in 2017 with the work visa lottery in US for FY H1B Visa 2018 may be applying this year to work in US. Below are some of the common FAQs that are tied to H1B work visa for fiscal year 2019. This article will be updated with latest info as we get more info.

H1B 2019 Season Start Date ?

H1B Visa 2019 Quota ?

Will there be lottery for H1B 2019 ?

H1B 2019 Lottery date ?

How to find H1B 2019 Sponsors ?

H1B visa 2019 fees ?

H1B 2019 Latest News

Beginner - First Time H1B ?

If you are going through the H1B process first time, it is good to learn some basics like cap, quota, LCA, etc. Click adjacent button

What is the H1B Visa 2019 season start date ?Update : USCIS will start accepting H1B Petitions starting from April 2nd, 2018 as per their official update on their website. In general, USCIS starts accepting applications for the next fiscal year exactly 6 months before the start of the next fiscal year. USCIS fiscal year for 2019 starts from 1st October 2018, which means they should accept applications for FY 2019 from April 1st, 2018. As April 1st is a Sunday, USCIS should accept applications for H1B 2019 season from April 2nd, 2019.

What is H1B visa 2019 Quota for Regular and Masters filings ?
As of the date of writing of article, the H1B quota is as below. This is also called the H1B Visa Cap. You can read more at What is H1B Cap ? Regular vs Masters quota ?

H1B Regular Quota : 65,000 visas

H1B Master’s Quota : 20,000 visas. ( only US Masters eligible)

Also, of the overall 85,000 visa cap, every year 6,800 visas are set aside for the citizens of Singapore and Chile as part of the Free Trade Agreement with them. There were few bills part of Comprehensive Immigration Reform that are not active in Senate that were proposed from Obama administration days to change the cap count to 110,000 and Masters to 25,000, including potential to make H1B cap extend up to 180,000. But nothing has moved and all are dormant. Nothing new has been proposed by the new Trump Administration regarding changing cap count. To get a glimpse of historical cap count changes, you may check H1B visa cap count history from 1990 to 2017

When is H1B Visa 2019 Lottery Date ? Update : USCIS Conducted Lottery for FY 2019 on April 11, 2018.
There are two things, one is when the H1B petitions are accepted for the lottery and second is when the actual lottery is done. H1B visa petitions for next fiscal year would be accepted by USCIS from April 2nd, 2018 for 5 working days until April 6th, 2018 to be part of the lottery. Now, the actual lottery date depends on various factors depending the volume of petitions and USCIS load. It can be anywhere in second week of April. For FY 2018, the actual H1B Lottery was done on April 11th, 2017 . We can expect anywhere around the same date like April 11th or April 13th.

How to find H1B visa 2019 Sponsors ? It can be very hard to find a good employer and convince them to sponsor H1B to work in US with major unknown like H1B Visa lottery. Anyways, you would be in one of the three scenarios, if you are seeking a H1B Sponsor.

F1 Student in US : You can find an internship or co-op at an employer who can sponsor H1B visa and ask them to sponsor your H1B. You can continue to work on OPT once you graduate as well. You find the list of H1B Sponsoring companies using the tool

International Professionals : If you are outside of US, it can be tricky with all the latest rules by Trump administration. Your best bet is to find an multi-national company ( MNC) and work through them to sponsor H1B visa. You may have hurdles inside the company with all the internal process, many waiting, etc. But, it is up to you to negotiate and ask them to take a chance. Many try the IT body shop route, where they ask them to file H1B. Rules have changed in the last few years and it is very risky move and can jeopardize your US hopes. Read comments on this H1B Companies Reviews article to get an idea and beware of such consulting companies to avoid fraud.

Important Note : We, as RedBu2US, DO NOT Provide any H1B sponsorship or guide anyone using professional services or fee. If anyone approaches you by saying our name, it is pure FRAUD…beware !

What is H1B 2019 Filing Fee ?
H1B visa petition filing involves USCIS fee towards certain things and attorney fees, which varies by company size, and attorney involved for the case. As of FY 2018 season, it can range anywhere from $1,600 USD to $7,400 USD + Attorney Fee. In year 2016, for FY 2018, the H1B base filing fees, increased from $325 to $460. Below table is a high level summary from FY 2018 quota as of writing, it maybe subject to change as we approach towards the filing date. If any changes, we will update this accordingly. Also, you can Read Summary of H1B Filing Fee – Who pays for What ? .

H1B Fee – Paid Towards

Amount in USD

Base filing fee

$460

AICWA Fee

$750 or $1,500

Fraud prevent & detection fee

$500

Fee based on Public Law 114-113 ( if applicable)

$4000

Premium processing fee (Optional)

$1,225

Immigration Attorney Fee

Varies from $500 to $3000

H1B 2019 Case Tracker :
Did you work with attorney and sent all documents to apply for FY 2019 ? It is quite hard for applicants to know the general status of everyone to understand their situation. We have put together a tracker along with good graphs for analysis. It is completely anonymous as we do not capture your case number or any personal information. It is community contributed data, the more you add, the better for everyone, including You !

July 30th, 2018 ( Official News ) : USCIS announced that they have returned all the H1B 2019 petitions that were not selected in lottery. They gave guidance that, if you have filed for FY 2019 and has not received a receipt notice or rejected package by August 13th, 2018, they can contact USCIS. More info at USCIS News Alert

Feb 22, 2018 ( Official News ): USCIS released a new memo with additional requirements for H1B petitions filed for third party worksite locations. These new rules are very extensive asking for work orders, contracts, client letter itinerary, etc. and will have huge impact on H1B 2019 quota filings. Read completed details with impact info at New Policy Memo Third Party worksite H1B Petitions – Requirements, Impact.

December 2017 : There are many speculations floating around based on the proposals and bills in senate and house by Trump administration. We just have to wait and see what happens. We will track all the news and update here for everyone’s update.

You can bookmark this page and check this page for updates on H1B FY 2019 season.
Do you have any questions on next H1B 2019 season ?

Fragomen just sent an email saying that my petition was filed in april 2nd ,,, not one single communication since then . Is that weird ? should I contact them ? thanks n adv and congrats !!! also NON AD

So apparently a list of student attending Harrisburg university and on CPT was put up with their id’s and their receipt number which university extracted from their sevis updates. Sad part is that there is like 70-100 people just in obe batch with multiple petitions and some have filed 4 petitons and whats worst is all of their petiton got picked.

Is there a way to report these people. Only 1 application of theirs sound genuine rest is all desi consultancies. Just an example:

EAC1814251807 EAC1814252150 EAC1814552181 beongs to the same person. This list is endless.

People like gayathri commenting about multiple petitons are apparently not trolls which is sad.

This is my 5th time non AD, single petiton every year and it just hurts to see these people do this kind of a scam and how the hell is luck favouring them.

The above example , only 3 got selected but god knows how many this manic filed it could be 4 or 5 or even 10.

I can report close to 100 people with multiple petitions (almost 214 slots got wasted) 214 careers got wasted. Boy this person better not cross path with me in his lifetime.

No Worries dude, most of these applications will be rejected. USCIS already knows this kind of abuse, so considering future rejections they select 100K applications (5K extra from AD pool and 10K extra from regular pool). Non – AD system abuse is on even more wider scale and going on for many many years. Many Non – ADs with no offers apply H1B through consultancies, as you know Hyderabad is mecca of such applications. I hope all genuine candidates will be picked up in the lottery and hopefully trump administration will act on those abusers.

you could’ve not used the college name. you might risk everyone else’s chance attending the college by bringing up such issues with name. Name these culprits by all means.. but there are so many poor souls who are doing second masters because they were beaten by the system in the past. I think you might be in the same boat too.

Dont risk everyone’s chances by naming the college – just give the receipt numbers of these frauds.

No man these people should not be here. Do you know these crazy maniacs are doing 2nd and 3rd masters from this university. There was one guy during the introduction in one of the class he said this is his 5th masters.

Bro cpt with 1st masters is good. These people should not be a part of this university and use CPT to bridge the gap between consecutive lotterries.

They should be reported. Because of people like these even people with 1st masters and on CPT is getting a lot of heat and scrutiny.

so you are doing 1st masters with CPT.. do you even know the rules of the CPT… and you came from whatever country to HU for your masters and think you are the most qualified person to work on CPT and get H1B. Some of these people are from colleges like stanford, NYU and duke coming there for second masters due to being failed by the lottery system and you think you are more genuine than they are? I agreed to your point about frauds filing multiple cases but you are coming to study and working on CPT from day1 shows me that 1. you are not good enough to get into a decent college 2. you are misusing the system yourself by working from day 1 when you are not allowed to during your first year

This is your 5th attempt but you are questioning those with may be a 2nd attempt just because they are doing 2nd masters? I paid 100k+ for my MBA from a top college but I should leave immediately after 1st failed attempt at the lottery. all non-STEM students get only 1 year on OPT but they should pack the bags and leave but you….but you sir should get 5th attempts and more. God willing you will get 10 more attempts before you are selected.

@Help report these people I agree. I know personally people who filed multiple applications even last year. Got picked up, received RFE, cleared that, moved to job which got picked and now are working on H1b. genuine candidates lost the slot and an honest application.

H1pending Hey guys, I am AD, and my employer told me on 7th that my case was picked in the lottery and was waiting for the hard copy of receipt notice to come to him. I checked with my DSO on 12th (today) and it does not reflect any case number on Sevis portal. Has anyone faced a similar situation? Where your sevis was not updated for a week even though check was already encashed.?

I am still not able to believe my eyes seeing my receipt notice uploaded in my immigration portal. This is my 3rd time but the confidence which I had this time was high and that got paid off. Be confident and still we can expect receipts for few more weeks. Non AD Vermont center 3 rd Timer Big 4

Hey guys, I am AD, and my employer told me on 7th that my case was picked in the lottery and was waiting for the hard copy of receipt notice to come to him. I checked with my DSO on 12th (today) and it does not reflect any case number on Sevis portal. Has anyone faced a similar situation? Where your sevis was not updated for a week even though check was already encashed.?

I checked the Immstar portal and found receipt number updated there…I had mailed the attorney 2 days back asking for the status and they adviced to keep checking portal…do not wait for mail from them..u can check immstar dorectly

This year 70% would be AD and only 30% would be Non-AD selected candidates. The ratio of AD selected this year 10 of 8 Applications. The Non-AD those who applied are less this year compared to previous year. The ratio of Non-AD selected this year 5 of 2 applications. So almost 80 % selected in lottery results are out. Remaining 20% to come next week.

My hearty congratulations..! Could you please share the status from Online is it “Case Received” or “Case Approved”? Ideally, ideally notice date is not an approval, but I really love to see your approval status.

The receipt notice acknowledges receipt of both the fees and the complete document (no missing signatures and no missing required evidence). So the check will be cashed before the receipt notice is issued.

First, the EMPLOYERS must start point system within the company as to who qualify for an H1B application. Morons like you all who have opinions about who is more “deserving” would not even make the cut. Look at you guys, fighting on a forum because of your bad luck. Man up and think about backups.

No to sound discouraging or anything but the real indication would be for you to receive the receipt. Try to contact you petition firm or attorney/lawyer to check whether they already received it. But, yeah, that is a good sign! Congratulations!

day 1 cpt is not correct option- specially for the people with same level of degree. so if you are doing a second masters its technically illegal for you to get another CPT. there were so many RFEs and rejections last year and this year too RFEs just started.. your GC application might be also jeopardized when they review you enrolled in a program for few months to extend your stay. they review very thoroughly during gc process.

Question is which degree will be relevant for your current role? your job offer has to match your program to justify any CPT at all. the thing that is going for you is that it is your first master so the question of same level will not come in picture. but still being able to work from day 1 outside the campus will 100% be scrutinized and more so in subsequent years.

Best option : Talk to lawyer. Its 100-150$ for 30 minutes but you will find it 100% worth. I have been in lot of see-saw with respect to this. You could ask people who have undertaken the option and got H1b approved if that helps.

Wow dude, you want to make your life’s most important decisions based on the opinions of random people on the internet? Talk to an immigration attorney man, I’m certain that here people would simply pull out ‘facts’ from thin air. I wouldn’t base my decisions on crackpot theories that ‘they review it thoroughly during gc process’ or whatever.

also how can you start applying knowledge from day 1? CPT day 1 is misuse of the system and uscis is planning a crackdown. After RFEs and rejections last year, changes in law this year. Check the latest article on changes on IG

i know of people on day 1 cpt who have been approved as late as feb this year after RFE and people who have been outright rejected after RFE. almost everyone on day1 CPT had the RFE as well last year. you can check in your senior batch.